Jun 27, 2012

I enjoy a good apocalypse movie, but I never thought that zombies were real. Well not everyone things as I do.

The US Center for Disease Control has been forced to address the American public in the wake of internet rumors of a possible ‘zombie apocalypse”. The CDC has previously run a few tongue-in-cheek campaigns about zombies, using the popular theme to get the public prepared for “anything”. As the agency’s director says,“if you are generally well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse, you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, or terrorist attack". But it’s now found itself in an unusual spot: having to treat the matter seriously. CDC spokesman David Daigle said the agency “does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms) Feds vs. Zombies: CDC officially denies 'Zombie Apocalypse' — RT:

A few weeks later residents in Main participated in a zombie apocalypse emergency drill.

Around 100 emergency responders from eight different counties participated in the event in the quiet city of Bangor. The premise: an unknown virus originating from Jamaica has reached Maine, turning the infected into zombies. Once infected, the virus quickly spreads to the brain, and turns the host into a full-fledged zombie, who has only one thing on its mind: biting other people.
The officials were armed with two would-be vaccines – one to prevent the infection from reaching the brain, and one to bring the zombies back to life. “We have identified in several states, particularly Texas, New York, Illinois outbreaks of these civil disturbances and biting,” one official said. “And in conjunction with that there are also widespread power outages.”The event may have been a staged act, with locals playing zombies, but it gave emergency responders an opportunity to prepare for a real life epidemic. Drills of the dead: Main prepares for zombie attack --RT

Jun 23, 2012

Last summer I started a short-lived part time job with Leap Force. My task was to read internet queries and evaluate the ten to twenty search results based on evaluation criteria, determine the appropriateness of each result, and flag any site I suspected of using spamming techniques.

One query that I remember was "make money from home online". I often flagged these results as spam. Often appearing in these queries were online companies like "Short Task" and "Microworkers" which act as a clearing house for web entrepreneurs to contract others to promote their business. For example, if I were running an Amazon Store, I could go to one of these two companies and hire anyone to write positive comments beneath my products or "like" my store on Facebook. The "worker" might earn $0.60 then do the same task.

The internet is supposed to be a pure democracy, with authentic comments and reviews. When making online pursue a careful buyer will read comments with a degree of skepticism, but we assume that these comments were written by actual customers, not by people paid small amounts of money to write scripted feedback. Now consider this when it comes to page rankings. One $0.06 task posted by a man named "Gerald Wolfe" was to search Yahoo, Bing, and Google with eight specific queries. The way these search engines work, this man's page rank will increase. Also, because of the specific nature of these terms, when you or I search for his name will produce auto fill text with his name and terms like "clients love him" and "positive experiences". These are not authentic they are a manipulation of the internet .

We must be careful where we place our trust and make decisions based on reason, research, logic, and faith.

Adopt a Classroom

Did you know that on average teaches spend $600 a year on necessary school supplies for students. Through "Adopt a Classroom" you can make a donation to help provide classroom materials for students. This link specifically helps students in East Providence, RI. These funds are given directly to teachers for use in their classrooms.